Video: Selecting elements

In the previously video when we put some simple surfaces on our models I quickly selected the polygons in order to create two different surfaces. So in this video I want to show you how that works. Selection and deselections in modo are one of the very first things the program just came up with back in modo version 1, because modo is all about workflow and speeding up your workflow, and a good part of that is working with different selections. What are these selections? We can work with Vertex, or vertices, which are the points of your model, the edge of your model, the polygons, and then the Item mode itself.

In this course, author Dan Ablan walks through the process of understanding the MODO workflow while learning to create 3D models and animations. The course teaches fundamental tasks, such as modeling polygons and applying materials with the Shader Tree, while exploring scene building in depth through advanced lighting, camera, and animation techniques. The course also covers MODO's schematic tools and shows how to render animations for various playback media.

Selecting elements

In the previously video when we put some simple surfaces on our models Iquickly selected the polygons in order to create two different surfaces.So in this video I want to show you how that works.Selection and deselections in modo are one of the very first things the program justcame up with back in modo version 1,because modo is all about workflow and speeding up your workflow, and a goodpart of that is working with different selections.What are these selections?We can work with Vertex, or vertices, which are the points of your model, theedge of your model, the polygons, and then the Item mode itself.

It gets a little confusing and you will at times move a polygon when you wantto move the item and move the item when you want to move the polygon.I still do it to this day, after all these years of using modo.Let's go ahead and load up a model from the Layout tab. And under theMiscellaneous, like we did before, let's load up the Toy Tractor.Just double-click to load that. And then I am going to jump back to the Modeltab, only just to keep a little bit cleaner interface.I will press the A key on my keyboard to fit that to view.So what happens in Item mode--you can see over here in the Items tab that theToy Tractor object is loaded--in Item mode the entire object is selected, and what that means is if I press myMove tool, I can move this around. Simple enough.

But what if I want to take this wheel and pull that off?Well, that's where I will go to Component mode. And you will see the little icon right here.You can click that and you jump instantly to Component mode.So if you hold your mouse, you can see Item mode or Component mode. And if youhear that term, that's what that means.And what is a Component mode?Well, a component of your model, meaning a polygon, an edge, or a vertex.So let's say I want to select this wheel itself.I will first turn off the Move tool, and now you see when I mouse over you cansee the highlight of that wheel.

If I click on it, obviously I am selecting one of those polygons.If I double-click, everything connected to that will become selected.I can press Shift+A to fit that selection to view, and to deselect all I do isjust click away from it.But there is other really cool ways to select things. So watch this.We can select one and hold the mouse and select two, so, in order. And then Iwill press the L key on my keyboard, and that's select a loop, and with that Ican press the Scale tool, which is right here, or the R key on your keyboard, andI can scale that up.

I can also bevel that, and I can move it and do everything else.So one of the things to understand as you work through modo is that, like otherprograms, if nothing is selected, whatever you do applies to everything in your scene.In this case I have only selected this rim around this tire, and of course thatis the only thing being affected.So Command+Z to undo, or Ctrl+Z on the PC.We will turn off that, and then we will click at the little area outside of thatselection to deselect it.Other things you can do to select is maybe select one, then hold theShift key and select two.

Now the reason I hold the Shift key is this: selections toggle with your mouse,so if I Click+Hold my mouse, I can just select polygons like this.Let go on the mouse and now I am starting over.Let's say you want to select just a few key polygons. How do you do it?That's the Shift key.So I will select one, and I will hold the Shift key, and then I can add to my selection.And by the same token, Ctrl will let you deselect. So hold the Ctrl key andclick to deselect polygons.

Now why would you do that?Well, maybe perhaps you want to select just these guys in here.Accidentally, you get too far.Hold the Ctrl key and click on the one you don't want.And now whatever I want to do, bevel, extrude, can all happen to those selected polygons.All of these techniques work on the edges and vertex as well.If we go back now, we can select one, hold the Shift key and select another,and I use my Up arrow,now I can copy that selection pattern.If I select one and maybe skip two of them and use my up arrow, I can now justgo every three, like that.

We'll do it one more time like this, and go all the way around.We'll go with two of these here.Alt key again to select a Loop, and then if I use my left arrow on my keyboard, Ican slide that selection--using my right arrow I can go back the other way--hold the Shift key and then use my up arrow and I can expand my selection.And we're going to use that a lot. Let's say I wanted to just select this part of the wheel like this.I can hold the Shift key and then press my up arrow to expand that selection,making it very easy to then select the Transform tool and just pull that out.

And then we'll click to deselect.There are two ways to turn off a tool.So if we have our Move tool on, we'll click and drag to pull this, hit thespacebar to turn off your tool, and then you click to deselect.And also, if you continue with your spacebar--watch up here--you can togglebetween Vertices, Edges, and Polygons.So let's stop at Edges real quick and take a look what happens.Now when I mouse over in Edge modethat tells modo I'm working with edges.So I can very easily just double-click and select an edge, just the way we didwith a set of polygons.

I can then of course use the Scale command and scale that edge up.And edges are very powerful, and we're going to use those throughout the course.And at the same time we can use Vertex and do the same thing.We can select one, hold the Shift key, select two, press the L key to select Loop, press the R key for Scale, and you can scale those points up.Now, everything I've done here doesn't look a lot different from Points to Edgesto Polygons based on just scaling these, but perhaps we wanted to tighten up theedge of a model in here.

Well, that we want to do just with an edge.Or we want to extrude the front end here of these polygons, so that we workjust with the polygons.Depending on the project at hand, working with selections of points, edges, andpolygons vary greatly,but all of the tools work on each of those.For instance, I am able to bevel points, I am able to bevel edges, and I am ableto bevel polygons by pressing the B key.Many programs have different functions for different modes.You are going to use a different mode for beveling edges than you do withpolygons, but not in modo.

So it makes it very simple to just control and work with your model.Another thing we would use selections for: let's say, we want to put these on a separate layer.So I would double-click this wheel.I'd hold Shift, double-click this wheel.Then I'll hold the Alt or Option key and rotate around.Shift, double-click, Shift, double-click.On my keyboard, just Ctrl+X to cut.Go to a blank mesh layer, right here in my Item List, and Ctrl+V to paste.And now I've got those into a new layer.

The reason I do that is let's say I want to animate them, or I want to workwith them separately, or perhaps they're a reference for another model. Maybe it took areally long time to model that portion.You're done with it. Keep that in the background as a reference and thenmodel in another layer.Similar like you would do in Illustrator or Photoshop.You can always combine those layers later, but this is a way to separate yourmodel and protect parts that you've already made.Just a little bit there about selections and deselections.As you work, you're always going to be selecting and deselecting.We're going to do a lot more of it in the next few videos.

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